According to a current Consumer Reports study, Customer satisfaction levels are particularly low for television providers. Comcast and Time Warner Cable rated among the lowest, and it seems that customer service is in part driving customer dissatisfaction.

And that makes sense. With the ubiquity of streaming and other easy, low-cost television viewing options, customer expectations are probably rising through the roof. Basically, when customers are paying north of $100 per month for television, they expect north of ‘ok’ for customer service.

In a comment to Variety, as evidence of its improved customer service, Comcast cited: shorter service windows, a 97% on time visit rate, and a 20% decrease in repeat visits to solve customer issues. But if these facts are true, why are Comcast customers still so unhappy?

My guess is that Comcast isn’t measuring and managing the right customer experience metrics. While the metrics they cite are fundamental to running a functioning operation, they have nothing to do with creating a compelling customer experience.

In addition to measuring procedural facts, Comcast should measure its customer service experience from the customer’s perspective.

One customer experience metric I’d suggest is Customer Effort Score which tracks how much work customers put in when interacting with a company, and includes aspects of the customer experience like whether a technician understood the customer’s issue. Other metrics Comcast would benefit from are Competitive Edge Score and, given the amount Comcast spends on advertising, tracking its Customer Support Branding Score would be helpful too.